James M. Jeffords: “I understand what my good friend from Kentucky is saying, but I remind everyone what the real issue is, and that is…”

“I understand what my good friend from Kentucky is saying, but I remind everyone what the real issue is, and that is elections. We are talking about a system which has developed over the past couple of years which has seriously imposed upon us unfairness as far as candidates are concerned who find themselves faced with ads, and other areas of expression, to change the election. Why would they spend $135 million to $200 million unless it was successful? Let us get a real-life situation of what we are talking about. I have been in the election process for many, many years, and I know from my own analysis--and I think it probably is carried forward everywhere-- that the critical time in an election to make a change in people's minds is the last couple of weeks. Basically, I find that probably of the electorate, only about 50 percent care enough about elections to even go. That is the average across the country. Of that 50 percent, probably half of them will make up their minds during the last 2 weeks. So you are out and have a well-planned campaign and everything is coming down to the end. You can go and find out what your opponent has to spend, and you can try to be ready to match that. And then whammo, out of the blue comes all these ads that are supposedly issue ads, but they are obviously pointed at positions that are taken by you saying how horrible they are. So these are within the Snowe-Jeffords amendment. What can you do about it? You cannot do anything.…”